WHAT IS BEAUTY?
How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? For both women and men, we shower, fix our hair, brush our teeth, and do the best we can to look beautiful on the outside, yet we rarely give any thought to enhancing the souls within us. The fixation we have with impressing one another has led to the adage, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone.” When external beauty is a manifestation of the healthy soul that lies within you, it feels authentic, real, and attractive. But when the soul within you is drowning, starving, ignored, and unkempt, everything you do on the outside is futile. So beauty is then much more all-encompassing than what our society tries to lead us to believe.
THE GREAT PRETEND GAME
Many self-help books today are more like acting lessons that teaching people how to behave in the big-screen movie of life; but if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll see that the training they impart is just spray paint and stenciling for anyone hoping to become like Captain America. It rarely ends well.
It’s incumbent upon us to ask the question, do you pretend? We are all born with an intense need to feel significant, loved, valued, and accepted; sometimes we fear that we are not worthy of these things. So we pretend to be the people we think society wants us to be in order to meet the desperate needs of our souls. Let me be clear: these are not just wants or desires; these are God-given needs. What water, food, air, sleep, and sunlight are to your body; love, acceptance, attention, approval, and significance are to your soul.
Sadly, most believers don’t even acknowledge, much less manage, these needs because they were actually taught by their pastors to ignore their souls! In fact, in many circles the soul is thought of as something inherently evil. In other words, some people teach that to be truly spiritual you must suppress or ignore the needs of your soul and instead focus only on spiritual things. If a person is drowning in a pool, nobody stands by and says, “You need air, you airless person! If you would just read your Bible more often, you wouldn’t need air!” We all know that no matter how spiritual somebody is, he or she still needs air. You can go to church every day, read your Bible consistently, and pray all the time, but none of these things will fulfill the need you have for oxygen.
SOUL NEEDS ARE GOOD AND VALID
We must learn to care for our soul needs if we ever hope to cultivate Kingdom virtues that empower us to walk in our high callings, and if we ever hope to demonstrate the true beauty of our creator in us. So today I want to challenge you to take some time and assess what soul needs could use some attention in your life? What does your heart need? Is it rest, fun, connection with a friend? Do you currently need to feel known and seen? The more we go after taking care of these needs, and therefore our souls, beauty will start to really radiate from the inside out! And that, my friends, is exciting!
What’s one way you like to take care of your soul needs? How do you proactively love yourself? Let me know in the comments section! And for more on how to have a healthy soul, I encourage you to check out my new book, Destined to Win.
Originally published on krisvallotton.com.
Featured
Kris thank you for your words of wisdom and how it awakens me to a better understanding of our internal needs.Well I like to have quiet moments in the park. I love nature and living in the city one must be intentional in creating quiet moments. While riding the bus and looking out of the window or simply reading a book that speaks life is another enjoyable moment. Lastly, spending time with loved ones is meaningful to me too. Thanks again!
This could not have been posted at a better time than right now. This simple yet profound reminder is just what the Doctor ordered for me. I’m in the process of learning what my soul needs and how to fill those needs in a healthy way. It’s all a bit new to me.
On Point Kris!!! Kick butt article!! Just, so on point :D!! Keep em comin’!!!
Soul needs? Dude, we’re supposed to crucify the flesh daily and take up our cross! At least that’s what I’ve been told most of my life but I find God asking me this question and I’m almost afraid to answer it.
I can testify to the truth of this through self discovery. After living far too long soulless, I found myself needing fun and intimate time. Honestly, it amazes me that I even got through that period of my life and to such a healthy end. God truly is amazing. In my case, living with a very selfish person was the beginning. Top that with both being Christians and involved in ministry….. We are still together. I learned to let Jesus and the Word be my all in all. Certainly this is not the ideal for marriage, but God is making everything work for my good because I truly love and trust Him! God is using me to be a blessing for my husband. Our children are grown and serving the Lord so I have time and my husband who loves the Lord can receive without even realizing…. God is good.
I have been through a lot of emotional hurt that has effected my soul. My main goal is to become more and more like Jesus, to have heart like his, and to love the way he loves. As of now I have two ways of filling my soul needs. Depending where I am and the emotion I am feeling I run to the Father every time either in one, prayer or two, I get into my secret place. The Father know’s me better than I know myself. Sometimes the fulfilling of my soul looks like forgiveness, sometimes it looks like reading the word, and sometimes it’s being content with doing absolutely nothing.
You don’t need to pretend to be the person society (or other external pressures) want you to be in order to meet the desperate need of your souls to feel loved valuable and accepted. IT IS TOTALLY NOT Gods heart to suppress and ignore the needs of your soul to become “more holy” your soul needs to feel valued loved and accepted and that is valid and good. “We must learn to care for our soul needs if we ever hope to cultivate kingdom virtues that empower us to walk in our high callings “ Kris valloton
God opens up his hand satisfies the desires of every living thing! God Loves to father us and satisfy us in wild measures. He loves to lavish his love upon us. He loves when we come to him in need. We always leave ablaze with hope and a freedom to be fully OURSELVES . when you start to behold him you become like Him and you become a conduit of his glory and every room you walk into the atmosphere will change as a result of you getting your needs met ONLY by abba father. He delights in us to meet our needs! You are not an orphan you’ve been adopted into sonship you have an inheritance. I’m a king and I’m a powerful person I’m CHOOSING to become a virtuous man and I will use this freedom to set captives free!
The needs of body, mind and soul though are different but all the three co-exist and help each other to build a character or self who reflects and radiates positive vibes from inside. Our body requires proper diet so that it performs various body functions for us, we need to control our wandering mind so that it does not act like a monkey and finally when we have control over the two then we can take care of our SOUL (SELF) exuding love, positive attitude, approval, acceptance, attentive hearing of others experiences and adapting accordingly, detached mindset by limiting our desires and attaining the traits of simplicity, humility with satiety or satisfaction while taking care of self and others around us. All these makes our Soul exude the traits of SUPER SOUL. Thanks and regards.